Day THREE : Main Draw Round One

Quarter-Finals Decided …

It was on to the main draws today at the NSC, with sixteen matches to determine the quarter-finalists. All seven former Nationals Champions were in today’s mix, alongside the eight qualifiers who won through over the last two days.

There’s English, Welsh and Scottish players in both draws, and a good mixture of experience and youth too.

Action started at noon, and as usual you’ll find results, updates and photos on ourNOW at the Nationals Twitter feed, lots of Photos in the GALLERY, a quick report below here , and a full report at the end of the day.

Round One kicked off with the top half of the women’s draw and the bottom half of the men’s in the afternoon session.

Wales’ Tesni Evans started the day with a solid straight-game win over qualifier Alison Thomson, and in the other glass court match top seed Laura Massaro started her campaign for a fifth title with a comprehensive win over Rachael Chadwick.

On the traditional court Emily Whitlock and two time champion Jenny Duncalf beat qualifiers Alicia Mead and Kace Bartley, both in four in four games, to go through to quarter-finals against Massaro and Evans.

The men’s draw was hastily rejigged after the morning withdrawal of 3/4 seed Declan James with flu. That meant that Peter Creed was elevated to a 5/8 seed and a match with fellow Welshman Emyr Evans, younger brother of Tesni.

It was qualifier Evans, playing in his first Nationals main draw, who prevailed, taking the first two games before Creed retired injured. In the quarters he’ll meet former champion Daryl Selby, who eased past late call-up ‘lucky loser’ Matthew Parks in three.

At the bottom of the men’s draw two-time champion James Willstrop beat qualifier Lyell Fuller in straight games, and he’ll meet Richie Fallows, who produced the upset of the session as he beat 5/8 seed Ben Coleman with an impressive three-game display.

“I settled into the match quickly and felt quite confident on there, I think playing on the glass court helped me,” said Fallows. “Happy with that, and pleased to be through to the quarters for the first time.”

Evening Roundup : Seeds complete the quarter-finals

There were no upsets in the evening matches as the quarter-final lineups were completed, but none of the men’s winners had an easy time of it.

Nick Matthew, Josh Masters and Chris Simpson all won in three games but were made to work hard for it, and Greg Lobban had to come from one-two down to see off Adam Murrills.

The women’s matches saw Alison Waters come from a game down to beat Julianne Courtice – “she really took it to me in the first game,” said Waters – while Fiona Moverley and Sarah-Jane Perry won in straight games and Millie Tomlinson finished off the day with a tough four game win over Lisa Aitken.